One Year on Nutrisystem

What can I say after being one year on Nutrisystem? Was it life changing? – Yes! Was it harder than I thought? – Yes! Did I want to quit 50 times? – Yes! But most importantly, it was a year of learning and self-improvement, and that is priceless.

 A year later I look better and feel more confident. I am also so tired of dry and microwavable foods that I want to take a yearlong vacation from anything frozen and packaged. I might just do that because I feel that Nutrisystem got me where I wanted to be and I can now take it from there.

When I decided to give Nutrisystem meal plan a try last year, I was feeling pretty low. It seems funny now, because I had no idea how 2020 is going to turn out – talk about real low times for everybody involved! I wasn’t extremely overweight and was going to gym regularly last year, but it just seemed that my diet needed some type of overhaul. Nutrisystem seemed like a good option – balanced, cooked, personalized, complete, and affordable.

Signing up and ordering was simple. I chose the meals I wanted for an entire month and paid just about $300 for all the needed breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, and even free bundle of protein shakes. This kind of eating was going to separate me from my family’s menu, but I was willing to cook for them and eat my premade meals from Nutrisystem myself. My meals got here in 3 days and I was ready to start.

It started out good. The first week was actually a special box with 7 days of JumpStart meals. This menu is made to get your body in a kind of shock when you take it from 2,000-3,000 calories each day to just barely 1,200. Turbo shakes are also included in the JumpStart box for extra energy and protein. People claim to be able to lose 7 pounds right away – I lost maybe 4. 4 pounds is better than nothing though, so I was happy.

Nutrisystem is like many other diets that rely on extremely low calorie intake and low glycemic index foods. It’s hard not to lose weight if you stick with it. Sticking to a diet is usually not a problem for me, but all pre-made and ready-to-eat bland food was hard. I like fresh meals and cooking from scratch, so this year on Nutrisystem saw me struggle quite a few times.

Fortunately, the program encourages supplementing with fresh produce, so I did lots of that. I also used seasoning extensively to make the taste less bland. There are ways to improve Nutrisystem meals, that’s for sure.

I absolutely loved the convenience of ready foods though. I enjoyed knowing that I eat few calories without ever having to count them. I took Nutrisystem snacks on trips and I never felt too hungry. Feeling full was difficult, but that taught me to track my portion sizes.

The weeks when I was taking a break from Nutrisystem, I did very well with real life food in smaller portions. Nutrisystem showed me that I can eat almost everything in moderation. As long as I don’t overeat, especially in the evenings, I can stay on track with my weight.

I do strength training or cardio 5 days a week, so I always added an extra protein shake to my Nutrisystem meals to get enough calories needed for training, which was my trainer’s advice. And it worked.

At the end of the year with Nutrisystem, I am ready to part ways with it and get back to normal food. I can control my hunger and eat healthy small portions many times per day. In total I lost 12 pounds this year, which was exactly my goal. While I have no plans to order Nutrisystem any time soon, I know that if need be, I can do that and give my weight loss a quick boost or jump start.

Staying on Nutrisystem for a year requires great will power, but if I could do it, so can you. If nothing else, you will learn discipline and self-control, which both are great qualities for many aspects of life.